God often attaches a major weakness to a major strength to keep our egos in check. A limitation can act as a governor to keep us from going too fast and running ahead of God.

God specializes in turning weaknesses into strengths. He wants to take your greatest weakness and transform it.

Humility is not putting yourself down or denying your strengths; rather, it is being honest about your weaknesses. The more honest you are, the more of God's grace you get.

You may have had unpleasable teachers or parents as you were growing up. Please don't assume God feels that way about you. He knows you are incapable of being perfect or sinless. The Bible says, "He certainly knows what we are made of. He bears in mind that we are dust." 25

When our dreams shatter and we feel helpless, that's when we have to believe in God's power and presence.

When you think of the limitation in your life, you may be tempted to conclude, "God could never use me." But God is never limited by our limitations.

Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days - when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you're out of options, when the pain is great - and you turn to God alone.

God is not waiting for you to get physically healthy or spiritually mature before he starts loving you or enjoying you. He loves you right now, and he will be cheering you on at every stage of your growth and development. He is not waiting for you to cross the finish line first. He is smiling at you as you run the race.

You may have had so many failures at changing the way you eat or exercise or think or act that the possibility of lasting change feels like an unreachable goal. Well, to be honest with you, it probably will be — unless you plug into God's power. What is impossible from a human standpoint is easy to God. With God, today's impossibility is tomorrow's miracle.

So don't be troubled by trouble. Circumstances cannot change the character of God. God's grace is still in full force; he is still for you, even when you don't feel it. In

Without God's power in your life, you are just running on your own energy. God never meant for you to do that. It's like having a laptop that's unplugged; the battery will eventually drain and shut down the computer. Why would you live like that when God created you for so much more?

If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.